Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight?

DESCRIPTION: The tramp asks to be allowed to spend the night in the barn, adding that he had no tobacco or matches. He explains how he used to live a settled life, but then a stranger came to town and made off with his wife and son.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recordings, Charlie Poole, George Reneau)
KEYWORDS: abandonment rambling poverty hobo request
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 841, "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight?" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 502-504, "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight?" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 841A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 40, "A Tramp in the Rain" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 356, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (2 texts)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 70, "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 117-118, "May I Sleep In Your Barn To-Night, Mister" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #82, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 93, "The Tramp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 116-118, "Let Me Sleep In Your Barn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 15-15, "May I Sleep In Your Barn To-night Mister?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 28, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #768
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (on Ashley01)
Gene Autry, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Conqueror 7765, 1931)
Boone County Entertainers, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister" (Supertone 9182, 1928)
Jeff Calhoun [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart], "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (Grey Gull 4118, 1927)
Kentucky Mountain Boys, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (Supertone S-2027, 1930)
[Walter "Kid" Smith & the] Carolina Buddies, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister" (Perfect 160, 1930)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Can I Sleep In Your Barn?" (Victor V-40264, 1930)
Frank McFarland & Robert Gardner, "May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight" (Brunswick 203, 1928; Supertone S-2027, 1930; rec. 1927)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister" (Columbia 15038-D, 1925; on CPoole02)
Catherine Power, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Red Fox Chasers, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Gennett 6547/Supertone 9182, 1928)
George Reneau, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (Vocalion 15149, 1925)
James Roberts, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Conqueror 7254 [as Joe Reeves], 1929; rec. 1928) (Banner 32205/Perfect 12726/Romeo 5074/Conqueror 7765 [as Joe Reeves], 1931)
Ernest V. Stoneman and Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Okeh 45059, 1926); Ernest V. Stoneman, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Challenge 153/Challenge 312/Gennett 3368/Herwin 75530, 1926)
Tennessee Mountaineers [Charlie Poole?] "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister" (Broadway 8146, rec. 1929)
Jim Whalen, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (Champion 15545, 1928)
Kid Williams & Bill Morgan [pseuds. for Walter Smith & Lewis McDaniel], "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Perfect 160, 1931)
Marc Williams, "Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister" (OKeh 45467, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tramp's Story" (plot)
cf. "The Lehigh Valley" (plot)
cf. "The Deserted Husband" (theme)
cf. "Red River Valley" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Let Me Sleep in Your Tent Tonight, Beal (by Odell Corley, then 11 years old) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp.137-138; fragment, perhaps from Greenway, in Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 187; Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015,, p. 198. For Manville Jenckes, the villain of the song, see the notes on "Chief Aderholt")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Honest Tramp
Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?
NOTES [22 words]: Carson J. Robison credits this to E. V. Body, but "Body" gets credit for too many things for the attribution to amount to much. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R841

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography